Capacity building: a course on sustainable development to educate the educators

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present information about a team‐teaching course on sustainable development (SD) for educators in an institution of higher education, Monterrey Campus of ITESM in México.

Design/methodology/approach

Four faculty members were invited to work together with the Sustainable Campus Programme coordinator in the process of developing the “Educate‐the‐Educator's” SD course. The course was structured using lectures, readings, class role play activities, homework, and general discussion. Additionally, a workshop‐format was woven throughout the course; its function was to help the educators incorporate SD issues within their own courses.

Findings

It was found that a multi‐disciplinarily developed and delivered course is an effective vehicle for educating educators on SD. Documentation of some facets of the learning process further helped the “students” and the course leaders to better understand the whole learning process.

Originality/value

The paper's value rests on the interconnected structure, showing resonance with the triple bottom line, as well as many other dimensions linked with sustainable development. This structure increased the course participants' comprehension of sustainability. Furthermore, the use of concept maps and digraph theory to evaluate “faculty participants'” comprehension of the interconnections and dimensions of SD proved to be a successful innovation.

Citation

Lozano‐García, F.J., Gándara, G., Perrni, O., Manzano, M., Elia Hernández, D. and Huisingh, D. (2008), "Capacity building: a course on sustainable development to educate the educators", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 257-281. https://doi.org/10.1108/14676370810885880